As the
fleet passes New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, the leading four boats are within
80 nautical miles of the Scoring Gate and the chance to win the first points on
offer in the Da Nang New Discovery of Asia Race.

LMAX Exchange, Derry~Londonderry~Doire
and Qingdao are at the front of the pack* in terms of the distance to
finish in Da Nang, Vietnam, but all three look to be veering off and taking the
slightly longer route behind GREAT Britain,
in order to make the Scoring Gate situated at
02° 41.00S /152 52.00E and 02° 41.00S /152 52.500E where the first boat
through will win three points, with two and one point for second and third.

With
ever-changing winds and squalls to contend with Derry~Londonderry~Doire Skipper Daniel Smith sums up the events of
the last 24 hours: “So after days of praying for something to cool us down, as
night approached it started to rain and it kept raining for hours. Buckets of
rain fell out of the sky making it impossible to see where we were going into
the night. Thunder and lightning started and we were soaked through as rain
pelted down and wind varied from 0 to 25 knots.

“Today we
were getting on okay until the wind shut off completely for us. Frustratingly
we have since watched boats sailing fast and catching up riding the front edge
of a band of wind while our sails sag against the rigging. Thankfully the wind
has arrived for us too now and although gentle it gives us something to work
with to try and hold off Qingdao and LMAX Exchange which have made up about
15 nautical miles in a couple of hours.

After six days of racing, 102nM
lies between the first and twelfth boat, Mission
Performance. With the variable weather due to continue for the next week or
so while the fleet makes its way towards the Philippines, it is a frustrating
time for the teams, as Visit Seattle Skipper
Huw Fernie explains:

“We had another good taste
of life in the Doldrums yesterday; periods of not moving, some very high speeds
as squall clouds passed us, and in between we had steady, light winds to make
slow gains north. Unfortunately for us we were forced to tack upwind and that
resulted in sailing just over 3 nautical miles to gain 1nM in the direction we
wanted, frustrating for us on the boat and it was clear from our schedule
updates that we were one of the few forced to do this.

“It all changed at dusk when a very nice squall cloud
came and sat on us for a while. This was the first rain we have had in two or
three days so was very welcome, though in the winds that followed overnight we
managed to lose touch with Mission
Performance and Unicef which both
appear much further north today. This morning sees less wind once again, though
we have a sea state that hints at there being something further north so we are
carefully edging that way in order to find it.”

Visit Seattle has since picked up speed, and when
last polled was traveling at 9.1 knots, allowing it overtake Mission Performance which has only
managed to cover 28nM in the last twelve hours of racing.

Which team will be
first through the Scoring Gate and can the teams further back make up ground
while the leaders divert for the bonus points? To follow all the action, see the Race Viewer here.

Click
here to see the schedule of events planned
for the Da Nang stopover.